Cultural practice questions.

In 2019 the song Old Town Road spread as a meme on TikTok before Lil Nas X had a record deal, and went on to spend a record nineteen weeks at number one in the United States. For the music industry, the episode showed that

• a platform's users and algorithm can make a hit before any label acts
• record labels no longer play any part in whether a song succeeds
• streaming services pay artists more for songs that begin as memes
• chart positions are now calculated from TikTok plays instead of sales

Answer: a platform's users and algorithm can make a hit before any label acts

Cultural gatekeeping moved: virality on a recommendation-driven platform preceded and forced the industry's response, with a label signing Lil Nas X only after the song was already spreading. The absolutes in the distractors are the trap — labels still promote, license and monetise, they just no longer control the front door.

A team tests one phone assistant's speech recognition in two languages: it transcribes spoken Hindi accurately, but makes frequent errors in Wolof. Which contextual condition best explains the difference in performance?

• How many hours of recorded speech with transcripts exist
• How many consonant and vowel sounds each language uses in total
• How many countries treat the language as an official language
• How many people speak the language as their first language

Answer: How many hours of recorded speech with transcripts exist

Speech recognition is trained on recordings paired with written transcripts, so the size of a language's digital record, not the number of its speakers, sets the accuracy that can be reached. Wolof has millions of speakers and far less transcribed audio, which is why the same technique performs differently in two language communities.

A national archive holds a multimedia work published on CD-ROM in 1998, keeps two copies of it and checks every year that the files are unchanged. Which single observation would show that the work is preserved rather than only stored?

• The stored files still match the checksums recorded on deposit
• Staff can open and view the work on equipment in use in 2025
• The two copies are held in separate buildings with climate control
• The catalogue lists the title, publisher and donor of the discs

Answer: Staff can open and view the work on equipment in use in 2025

Bit-level integrity keeps the files identical but says nothing about whether any software can still render them, which is why digital preservation adds format migration or emulation. An archive whose checksums match and whose files no longer open has stored the material, not preserved it.

A museum publishes its collection online and finds that the objects the public can see are overwhelmingly European paintings, although two thirds of its holdings come from other regions. Which single earlier decision most directly produced that result?

• The website shows objects in the order in which they were acquired
• Catalogue entries were translated into three languages before release
• Only objects already photographed for exhibitions were put online
• Visitors can search the site by artist name but not by material

Answer: Only objects already photographed for exhibitions were put online

The digitised set inherits the priorities of the photographic archive it was drawn from, so a selection originally made for exhibitions decides what is visible online. Working from the full catalogue list rather than from existing photographs is the single change that would alter the outcome.

A language-learning app reports that 2.4 million people have enrolled in its course for a minority language, and a newspaper concludes that the language is being revived. Which weakness in that reasoning is most serious?

• The app has published its enrolment figures once a year since 2021
• Learners who use two devices may be counted twice in the total
• The course materials were written by volunteers, not by teachers
• Enrolment records sign-ups, not use of the language with others

Answer: Enrolment records sign-ups, not use of the language with others

Revival is a claim about transmission and everyday use, while the figure measures one action taken inside an app, so the evidence and the conclusion are about different variables. Numbers of habitual speakers, transmission to children and use in public settings would be the relevant evidence.

A public library system moves part of its budget from printed books to ebook licences, which expire after a fixed period or a set number of loans. Which group bears a cost of that shift without using the ebook service at all?

• Borrowers of print, as fewer physical copies are bought
• Publishers, who are paid again whenever a licence is renewed
• Readers who download a new title on the day it is published
• Library staff, whose ebook records are catalogued automatically

Answer: Borrowers of print, as fewer physical copies are bought

Non-users are the characteristic stakeholder of this course: the print borrower never opens the ebook platform, yet loses shelf stock, because a licence that expires must be bought again out of the same budget. Publishers and ebook readers gain from the shift rather than paying for it.